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B&B Empire Bagel Manager Says DOH Inspectors Fined Him Over Fallen Poppy Seeds
By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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Rohin Sethi/Gothamist
By
John Del Signore
Published May 7, 2012
Modified May 7, 2012
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The owner of a Montreal-style bagel shop in Cobble Hill says Health Department inspectors are asking the impossible, levying heavy fines for insignificant infractions like seeds on the floor. B&B Empire Bagels, which we reviewed as soon as it opened last year, has been fined $1,650 by the city for supposedly "incidental infractions" such as fallen sesames. Owner Alex Gormakh says inspectors cited him for sesame and poppy seeds that fall on the floor, telling the Post, “It is impossible to clean up after each and every bagel. It is impossible. It is a process."
"Look, a few seeds are always going to be dropped when you are dipping the bagel in the seeds," Gormakh adds. "They don’t all stick like glue. Now imagine the seeds from 100 bagels. Any place where bagels are produced will have these problems." Gormakh is hardly the first to blast the DOH for overly-zealous inspections shaking him down. But could it be there's more to the story than just a few seeds on the floor?
Reached for comment, a Health Department spokesperson tells us, "B&B Empire Bagels was cited for a mouse infestation and for having a heavy accumulation of seeds in the same area that many mouse droppings were found." Turns out Canadian-style bagel joints aren't much different from NYC bagel joints after all! Luckily for Gormack, during the latest inspection B&B was awarded the highest cleanliness grade of "A."
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b&b empire bagel
bagels
doh
health department
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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